Cotton and Surgical Masks—What Ecological Factors Are Relevant for Their Sustainability?

Mélanie Schmutz,Bernd Nowack,Till Batt,Patrick Wäger,Claudia Som,Peter Wick,Roland Hischier

doi:10.3390/su122410245

Mélanie Schmutz, Bernd Nowack + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410245

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Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing facemasks became common. Many initiatives arose to develop new types of reusable textile masks in order to overcome a shortage of surgical masks for the health care personnel and for the civil society. Having such high demand of facemasks raises the question about what factors define their environmental sustainability. This paper presents a first simplified Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) comparing surgical masks and 2-layered cotton masks. The aim of the paper is to identify and understand the relevant ecological factors in order to support decision making on how textile masks could be designed in a more sustainable manner. The results of our simplified LCA show that the cotton masks were performing better than the surgical masks and vice versa depending on the environmental impact that was looked at. It was also found that the lifespan and the weight of the cotton masks are two variables having a great importance for their overall environmental performance.

Highlights

The COVID-19 disease originated by a SARS-CoV-2 infection and caused a global crisis
The consumption of masks will very probably further increase based on the development of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis and an expectance of future pandemics caused by other virus events during the years
It was estimated by The World Health Organization (WHO) that 89 million medical masks for health workers are required for the COVID-19 response each month [2]

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 disease originated by a SARS-CoV-2 infection and caused a global crisis. The consumption of masks will very probably further increase based on the development of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis and an expectance of future pandemics caused by other virus events during the years It was estimated by The World Health Organization (WHO) that 89 million medical masks for health workers are required for the COVID-19 response each month [2]. There are three types of one-way surgical masks described in EN 14683:2019 (type I, II, and IIR) [4,5] and different types of washable textile masks, such as cotton, called community masks, which are not regulated yet For the latter, various initiatives worldwide were initiated to develop and produce textile masks aside the established surgical- or FFP protection masks that could contribute to reduce transfection rate as a source control measure (e.g., https://www.remask.ch/). One significant benefit of textile-based masks is the reusability compared to the disposable surgical mask

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